Mayaal and Bahc are in a seperate time and space that will meet back up with the current story once they've finished beating eachother up. The implications of this are that what those 2 say is LAW. So when they made the bet, and Evil won, NeS MUST follow that path. Now anything that would have been chance will now be in favor of the evil until the end of the story arch, and the hands of NeS won't be there to fix it. That's the gist.

Not to argue with the Hands of NeS or anything... but Didn't I just Curse the Evil Anti-Heroes?

I mean the Curse would normally turn chance Against evil, and now you are saying that the Hands of NeS have tilted the scales In favor of evil... How should we treat this?

Or are we taking about a Greater evil, some dark and sinister force that has yet to be revealed that will cast the "Anti-Heroes" as the Twinkie-stealing twerps they really are.

I have no idea what you're talking about. Unless this new character you've made up is a syndicate of NeS and knows NeSMagic, something presumably only available to Mayaal and Bahc, and known of by Arking Thand, than you can't really effect the shift towards evil. You might be able to curse those particular goons to have good effects, but overall, the storyarch and all random things in it will be evil.

That's sorta what I’m talking about. This Curse is from no particular character, and is a generic curse perpetrated upon anyone who shoplifts from the Convenience store of the damned. (As Geb, Ares, and Morris just did)

I just want to know, when you say that there is now a Shift in the favor of evil, is this towards a greater evil, or towards ALL evil, and how should I treat this curse on these particular “goons”?

I'd say, in the case of Ares, Morris and Evil Geb, that they could have the following effects on them:

1) They could have an all-or-nothing type luck, where instead of there being a small chance of something incredibly good or incredibly bad happening, it's either incredibly good OR bad, nothing in between. Meanwhile, all the other bad guys just have favor on their side. This option could lead to some dramatic, if extreme, story posts to come.

2) The good luck can counter the curse, leaving those three as they were. Not quite as dramatic, but easier to write for. That, and when all the other villians seem to be doing well, they can be all mad that they seem to be exempt from Lady Luck's grace.

3) It could be not option 1 or 2, but in between. The curse would give them bad luck, but fortune would also be on their side, so instead of a small chance of critical sucesses or failures, or nothing but criticals, it could just be a moderate/more criticals.

If there are other options I haven't thought of, bring them up people. Whatever the case, we'll likely decide as it's convinient to the story. And to try and not discredit either Ante's or Noble's intentions in THEIR attempts to resolve the "spelunking" bet, we should probably keep the villian's actions in the spotlight no matter what, but the spotlighting should show the range (even moreso than usual for NeS) between comic/side-story feel and serious/plot-paramount feel. Balancing the two is always a trick, but for now, just try imagining writing NeS as if the villians were the 'heroes' (not that they should be shown as characters we think are good, but in the other aspects of the heroes' role in a story).

I was discussing this matter with Geb just now, and here are my thoughts on the matter:

Simplify the issue. The villians now have it much easier. Things will simply not go wrong anymore. (You know, the inevitable "flaw" in the plan? There won't be a flaw anymore. Stuff like that)

I'd think that there would need to be some sort of counteracting force for this (ala conflict, the core of NeS and EeP). Now the question is, how do we (the writers) go about beating a villian with a flawless plan?

The easiest solution this I see is either:

1. The introduction of yet another character, who is unaffected by the issue, and is able to fight the villians.
2. Young finds herself unaffected (through her special ties to NeS). Of course, one could also argue that she is the MOST affected, this is for you all to decide.
3. Qhobeg does it. Since he was created in mysterious ways, he's got no writer. But on the other side of the coin, he is a clone of Geb, so he might be affected equally.
4. Morthrandur does it. Dunno how it'd work, but Geb suggested it, so here it is. :p
5. Wai ends up doing it. I think (depending on what happens with Young) this might be the best solution. Wai has no writer, no obvious ties to any story or plot (thus his ability to simply wander out, and avoid binding situations, such as jails and other things). One could even stretch it to say that he isn't even part of NeS, but rather another story altogether, and is somehow (ala Sliders) found in this dimension, and thus not bound to the rules of NeS, but rather an entirely seperate set of rules.

I think any of this stuff is possible, and I'd like to see where the new writers could take this. Us old writers tend to plan way too much anyhow.

Hang on there CM - in your post many a page ago, when TLTE, CM, Highemp, Krig and Wai were on the Viking Ship in the dreamstate, Wai reveals that he is more or less a servant, or at least in the employ of, Arkng Thand. I can't remember the exact wording but it was at the point that the heroes suspected that a traitorous writer was acting against them.

[QUOTE=The Last True Evil]Hang on there CM - in your post many a page ago, when TLTE, CM, Highemp, Krig and Wai were on the Viking Ship in the dreamstate, Wai reveals that he is more or less a servant, or at least in the employ of, Arkng Thand. I can't remember the exact wording but it was at the point that the heroes suspected that a traitorous writer was acting against them.[/QUOTE]

Damnit, you're right. Sux0r.

Well, actually...

He may be in service to Arkng Thand just as a means to return to his storyline. Hmm... I shall think on this.

This is probably WAY out of my league here...

I have been Scheming allot of things, most of them revolve around the Unnamed Detective. And I might be able to use one variant to contribute to this story Arc, that is of course if people like it.

I am not suggesting that the detective be the one who defeats the"Evil" but he might serve to enable another existing character to stand up to evil.

Basically, here is my rational for this: The Detective is just as effected by story and "Writers" as other "normal" characters in NeS, however, he has one unique property: His story has no natural end, no solution, no climax nor conclusion. He does not know this, nor should anyone else for that matter. However, if he should ever start to understand what is going on, he could theoretically make the "Ending of his story" to enable another character to stand up to the "Evil". I have a few more tricks up my sleeve with the Detective as well that might help.

I don’t know the full back-story for Young, but I personally like the idea of Her being the one who finally stands up to whatever “Evil” we have here.

Anyway, Thoughts?

P.S. One way or another, Please keep the Detective Unnamed, I like it better that way, for now.

It's something to keep in mind. Just remember, like everything in NeS, it's best not to rely on any one idea too much.

I just read TLTE's post. Hot damn! Pretty sweet, TLTE, pretty damn sweet.

For those who may not know: the three Potentials mentioned in TLTE's post first showed up in NeShattered, and they're pretty much what their title implies -- they are the potential that our characters come from, sort of like a source pool that can form any number of rivers or characters. They feel comfortable with the passive potential vs. the kinetic actuality, the known possibilities vs. the doubt of choice, that sort of thing. Alexan, however, has urged the need to embrace the latter, and convinced Erronem and Phoenix not to shun it. In any case, there's a good probability that they're not, in fact, the villians, though due to their roles, being in the "foreground" of NeS isn't really their place -- they work best in the background. They also consider Morthrandur (aka the Sepuchral Phantom) to be their arch-enemy. Though his motives are not clear, Morthrandur seems interested in "hurting" NeS by using tools such as doubt to make it stronger. Perhaps he works for Thand, or for someone else, or for his own agenda. While his actions are questionable, it's not known whether he, or any of these people, are good or bad, for they all seem to be showing qualities of both.

Thand is being so freakin' awesome right now.

I updated the update section at the front of the workshop again. We now have a story arc summary! I also updated the usual as well. There be a lot of new links to profiles now, mostly new characters, but also a reorganization/revision of Gebohq (which is important for understanding Gebiyl as well), and Arkng Thand.

aye, the last two posts (TLTE's and Kirby's) have been pure gold... But now I don't know what to do. I'm feeling inadequate.

Bah! Don't try comparing yourself to others -- we all have our strengths and weaknesses. I'm sure TLTE and Kirby can spout off a thousand things they think they suck at with writing, and a thousand things they wish they could do as well as some other writer in NeS. Besides, how good or bad you are doesn't matter with NeS -- anyone can write a post for it.

You all will just have to trust me when I say that you should NEVER be discouraged to write because you feel you won't be "good enough."

Yeah come on you worthless piece of crap, get off your lazy butt, write a post, and get over it, you slime-ridden sorry excuse for a Captain.

I've never seen such a pathetic lifeform in my lifetime, nor my previous lifetime. Hell, I'm confident that even the lifetime before THAT never saw something so pathetic. You're just a waste of space, Caprill. A lousy waste of space.

Either write a goddamn post or quit breathin my oxygen, ya hear?

And for God's sake, quit livin' in that damn van down by the river!

:p :em321:

/me runs and hides from the OMFG Police

Geb speaks absolute truth. I don't see my writing [recent posts] at all what it could be. I am a far better writer than I allow myself to be these days, but I'm just scraping together something to get my mind off of college entrance essays. NeS is a crawlspace out of required writing for me right now.

You seem to have been massacred by comments, Sarn, so I thought I would tempt fate and try one more. I like your writing. I think it's offbeat, charming and zany, which is a lot more "NeS" than my own melodramatic scratchings. So really, it's all opinion.

jsut a note to sok monkey: i'm going to get a bio up on Bhac (proper spelling is 'Bhac', by the way, that has gotten confused). The thing is, technically, niether Bhac or Mayall can ever 'win' the big battle of good an evil. that would lead to the end of the NeS, which is exactly what they fight against. Also, niether of then can be kiled. however, since you didn't say Bach has ben kille,d your psot is fine. When i post next i'll find some suitable way to bring Bach back if Kribs doesn't get to it first. I may actually do that tonight, but it depends on the time i have tonight.

Thanks Noble, I'll edit the spelling in my post. I didn't try to kill mayaal or bhac because I figured they were pretty much immortal. I also tried not to make it sound final, like it was an end to either party, but both ends were open to return or something. I just dispatched them from the storyline in the most fitting way considering the way the story turned. They aren't allowed to influence NeS directly by being in it and directly influencing the characters, correct? Aren't they supposed to maintain the balance in NeS from afar? That was my understanding of it, but please correct me if I'm wrong. And sorry if Bhac was supposed to stick around :-o . I kinda figured Kirb was trying to remove him from the storyline.

Oh, Sok, Don't misunderstand me, tehre wasn't anything wrong in your post about either character. In fact i liked your post, it was a cool battle (:p), and you got the personalities of Bach and Mayaal pretty well, IMO. I jsut wanted to sort of solidify the relationship between Bach and Mayaal for the benifit of all the new writers. I'll be the first to admit that the two of them and thier relationship can be confusing. thee only thing that i would change would be that i prefer Bach to use more magical and blood-based attacks, but that is never really been put down that he does so you ahd no way to know, and there's really nothing at all that says bach can't fight hand to hand, he can be very fast and agile if the need be.

Now, adressing the rest of your question: really, in fact, tehre's nothing that the hands are not 'Allowed' to do. Now, one of the hands may get annoyed at the actions of anouther and attempt to stop them, as in this case, but in terms of the story itself there's nothing they themselves aren't allowed to do. Just wanted to clear that up. Bach and Mayaal monitor and change events both in person and from afar, depending on what the situation calls for. Normally, Mayaal normally acts from afar, while Bach prefers to get up close and personal, but again there isn't any 'rules', per se, binding them.

And again, Bach wasn't 'supposed' to do anything, really. i ahd no plans for him, i spread him out like i did mainly because i (or anoutehr writer) could take him pretty much anywhere. And you were write to assume that Kirbs was making it so that Bach was out of the current arc, at least for now. After all, Bach yells at Mayaal about 'being written straight out of the story', so no worries there.

So, all in all, jsut wanted to clear those few things up. And again, good post, Sok, no matter how you use them i always like it when anouther writer uses Bach and Mayaal.

P.S. sorry, one alst thing: don't ever worry about 'messing up anoutehr writer's plans. The older writers and at least I have learned that plans are made to be broken,as it were :p. plans are nice, but can be changed at a moments notice and normally are. Normally, the best plans only include your own post, and that way we can let the NeS unfold in any zany pattern it feels like :-p

Ok, thanks Noble. That clears up alot. I'll keep an eye out for a bio on Bhac.

I believe you hit on exactly how I picture Bhac [Sorry I've spelt it wrong, I was cnfused because someone else spelled it incorrectly, or something like that] and Mayaal, and how they fight and interact. I really liked your post, overall as well. It's very badass to see your character fight through the words of another writer.

Oh, and you totally defaced my plan, but as Noble said; that's sort of why we WRITE for NeS. I like your angle better, personally. I think it allows us, as writers, to really experience writing as a whole, as a social activity, rather than a selfish writing of our "oh-so-flawless" ideas.

JediKirby

WOO! Bhac Character sheet up!

*sounds of cheering crowd*

Voodoo, I was reading your character sketch and thought it might be cool if we introduce a little romance into the story. I made an initial post to plant some seeds... If you're interested we can see where we can take that...

sure! certainly would be cool with the captain cadpill character's captain kirk like attemps to charm a lady.

Cool. He's Sarn_Cadrill the Hero right now, but I was thinking it's about time for him to switch back to Capt Cadpill.

Since I figure not everyone's clued in about the whole "infected" thing, you should know that, first off, all that are infected right now have been noted as such on the workshop. Hopefully this explination will help provide some background info:

A bunch of the heroes, not in London and not in the Jupiter bit, were at the Haunted House of Heroes, where the Dust was collecting. The Dust is the "mother" of Darkside and of Morthrandur. It's shtick is essentially offering great power at the cost of whatever they value the most. Usually, it's just a bunch of dust, and it swirls on people, making this offer, and either they refuse or accept and become figures like Darkside or Morthrandur. It DOESN'T mean they turn evil (if they value evil the most for instance), just sort of give up whatever they valued the most before. For characters like Mr. Stafford, it is a bit redundant, because he's just an *** who values little to nothing. Those heroes (Ford, Mimiru, etc.) cleaned up most of the Dust, but didn't bother cleaning it all up, so now they're "infected" which probably means it's a slower, less drastic change/temptation deal.

Also, keep in mind that this infection element is mostly just here to complicate the story, to screw with the good guys even more. It's unlikely the infection will "spread" though it's pretty likely that the Dust will live on, to collect elsewhere and become a threat whenever we writers feel like it (which may be never). In any case, it'd be very difficult to spread the infection -- someone would have to get really close to you, via healing or transfusing of blood or bodily fluids, or staying at their place and not cleaning up after yourself... (The Haunted House of Heroes might getting Dust-filled again <_<).

Keep in mind too that this effect of gaining power and becoming people they are not is suppose to be very subtle. All about the subtlety.

Sorry Sarn... I started writing my post. It took me a while, and just before I actually posted it I refresher the thread and saw your post. I was not about to lose four pages of writing just like that though...

Plus, it's not romance if you don’t get shot down a few times

lol, that's ok West Wind. I liked your post and it fets better with the evil advantage thing.

Just in case it wasn't obvious enough, it would seem to make sense if TLTE, Ante, CM, and Mimiru bumped into Geb, thinking he was Gebiyl, dressed like him and all... and since Geb was sent there in part because of the Potentials, well, they may run into trouble soon after

TLTE: it's not really a big deal, but I had always made the assumption that characters in NeS DO age, but only significantly as the story calls for it (certainly time in the story does not pass the same way as it does in real-life, but still). I mean, I do see Geb turning 30 eventually You know, assuming he doesn't die first :p In any case, the whole pointing the gun at his head thing was very dramatic

That's an interesting point. I came up with the idea when I was watching classic heroes, particularly James Bond. I mean, age is nothing when it comes to the Bond character - apparently frozen somewhere in his 40s, Bond survives decades of SPECTRE, then the Cold War, and currently looks exactly the same as he battles modern-day villains. I thought that could be explained and expressed literally with the NeSHeroes - their legend perpetuates them. Anyway, if any of the characters actually do age, let's just say Mayaal was wrong.

And I'm sorry about the dramatic gun thing. I always load the posting page up thinking, "Just do a light post. Have the heroes eat a sandwich or something," and TLTE always ends up two steps removed from a Shakespearean tragedy. Still, as long as everyone else remembers comedy, I'll continue with my hit-and-miss melodrama

Yeah, like I said before -- a minor point. If it turns out that NeS hero-types don't age, then they don't age. It's certainly a good insight you made in any case. We'll see how things go

As for your dramatic gun thing, don't be sorry stupid :p It was awesome. Sure, NeS should be comedic when it can, but like you said, if nothing else, there's the rest of us to write the comedic stuff

Well, hehe, you guys are going to write some rather funny stuff soon. sorry, mine's really heavy, too >.<

A few points with my post, though: feel free to do anything with the scenarios i've set up now, i don't have any specific plans

also, the teleporters in the robots only teleport between qwerty's lab and the last point they were activated. They can't go anywhere like CM, just to Qwerty's lab and then back to the point at which they were when they went to qwerty's lab, unles bhac personally imputs coordinates, like he did in my post.

Ok, i'm done.

Sorry about the long monologue form Mr. Stafford, and hopefully Voodoo will forgive me for staring to write back-story for her character without her…

Sorry I haven't written in a long time. I'm busy writing essay after essay in my classes as the quarter finishes up. I was going to post and start to reveal more about SokMunkey, (like his real name, alluding to his past, etc.) through Bhac. Just one question, what is Bhac up to? Or does anyone really know? Once again, sorry for not posting, I'll write something when I can find the time.

I didn't have any set in stone plans for voodoo's background any way. no worries

[QUOTE=Sok Munkey]Just one question, what is Bhac up to? Or does anyone really know?[/QUOTE]

I haven't had anything specific in mind, really. He wants to make sure all the groups are doing evil stuff, and so is tehre to make sure, or at least attempt, to turn Sok, Voodoo, and Sarn to the path of evil (and he's not above being manipulative, btw). From the fight you wrote, i'd say of what i've seen you appear to have a good feel for bhac's character, so whatever you feel like will probably be a good direction to go in for your post. For others: Bhac is the left hand of the NeS, and so is basically pure concentrated evil. He's going to at least attempt to lead and manipulate the characters to the path of evil, and will offer assistance against the heroes.

[edit:] Also, just read West Wind's last post, and all i can say is sweet! I'm relaly liking Mr. Stafford, so Bhac will also try to bring him into the evil fold. If Voodoo goes evil with Bhac, that may make things wierd, but hey, it could also be quite interesting.

[edity edity:] Last one, really. i jsut forgot to tell Sok: If you want to use Bhac for the purposes of telling your history, i just wanted to let you know that, if you want, its entirely possible that Bhac knows all about Sok's history, he might have found it out various ways after leaving the party's company (especially if he wants to make you dark.,.. well, darker then he is already). I didn;t have Bhac say anything more then "i know a lot about you" because you said to leave his history alone for now, but if you want to use Bhac to do it, then i jusut wanted to let you know either full knowlage or none is possible. Whichever works for you.

Just took some liberties with Bhac and Mayaal. Hope I didn't step over any lines. This is my first attempt to write any of their involvement. In keeping with the triumph of evil over good, Sarn lost his fight with Bhac, but in order to promote preservation of the NeS, I've allowed him to escape.

Anyway, I'm thinking that Sarn will, once he has healed, be going to look for Voodoo.

But now, some thoughts on the current situation with Sarn:
A more immediate concern is how Mayaal will treat Sarn while in his care. Obviously Sarn's dagger is going to be a focus, since it has the potential to cause damage to (possibly even kill?) Bhac and assumably Mayaal. Something to think about would be what would happen to the NeS is Bhac or Mayaal were killed. I'm not sure, but I imagine it wouldn't be a good thing for either of them to die, which means that this dagger could be played out to be an incredibly dangerous object. If it got into the hands of Bhac of Mayaal, either might be inclined to use it against the other. But then they might not either, since that could get in the way of preservation of the NeS. Anyway, I'm just rambling some speculations here.. Feel free to join in with any suggestions.

Also a quick note. I was going to have Sarn be concious at the end of the fight and make a comment about Bhac being "marked" (I ended up cutting it out, cause it made things to complicated with when Sarn's personality switched back, and how to prevent Bhac from getting a hold of the dagger during this conversation.) I was musing though with Bhac's shape-shifting skills whether or not he'd be able to shape-shift the scar away. Maybe in his "true form" the scar would be visible, but in any other forms he can make it go away, or maybe he can't make it go away in spite of his best efforts... I don't know where to go with that. Thoughts?

Quick note: bhac and Mayaal have the story at heart, no matter how we hate each otehr, so we would never seek ultimate destruction of the other, as it would destroy the NeS.

[edit:]Also, i'm not entirely sure i like the idea of a weapon possible of causing us real harm. we're supposed to be the hands of a story, after all, and as immortal as the story itself. I don't like to bring it up, it stinks of powerplaying, but that is how Kirbs and I made them to be

[edit edit:] (i'm doing the double edits alot lately, huh?) Thinking more about it, i suppose it would be interesting if the dagger could cause us pain and scars, jsut not kill us. then we'd both want to get our hands on it in order to stop the otehr from messing in out plans... hmm, that could work, i suppose.

Well I left it kind of vague on purpose... So we can play around with it and see what develops. And, Kirbs just made a connection that Sarn is a producer of chaos, which is rather fitting for his character.

Just note that Sarn is (or at least thinks he is) aligned to the side of good. He's just ratherd unpredictable.

And, in case this wasn't clear from the post, the personality of Kern Saldin should not be used lightly. I'm not sure if he should come up in extremely dangerous situations, or possibly only when Bhac is around or what... But regardless, he doesn't appear often, like Captain Cadpill and Sarn the Hero.

Just wanted to apologize to TLTE, CM and Ante in particular for holding up "their part" of the story. I'd write the rest, but it's way late where I am, so I should try sleeping. In any case, I should have it posted up tomorrow or the like.